Mining machine with concentric relatively variably rotated heads



y 1967 w MENNEKES 3,322,466

MINING MACHINE TWITH CONCENTRIC RELATIVELY VARIABLY ROTATED HEADS FiledDec. 18 1964 22 Fig.2 7

IN VE N TOR WnuER Mgmvrxrs B s, Dam 8,4... Efrain/(Y5 I v United StatesPatent 3,322,466 MINING MACHINE WITH CONCENTRIC RELA- TIVELY VARIABLYROTATED HEADS Werner Mennekes, Weidenkamp, Germany, assignor toGewerkschaft Eisenhutte Westfalia, Wethmar, near Lunen, Westphalia,Germany, a corporation of Germany Filed Dec. 18, 1964, Ser. No. 419,329Claims priority, application Germany, Dec. 30, 1963, G 39,495 3 Claims.(Cl. 299-60) This invention relates in general to mineral-winningmachines, or drifting machines, such as are used in mining operations,and more particularly to a winning machine having rotary cutter headsdriven in counter-rotation at selected individual speeds to compensatefor the reaction effects encountered in mineral winning.

I the operation of rotary cutting winning machines, mineral is won, orcut free from mineral-bearing strata by the combined cutting, scraping.and striking action of chisel-like cutters extending from rotatingcutter heads. These cutter heads and their associated driving means arecustomarily supported on a machine frame which can be advanced indesired directions for extended mineral removal.

Because of the contact between the moving cutters and the mineraldeposit, considerable reaction forces and moments are imposed upon thecutter heads and are transmitted therethrough to the entire machine.

The effect of these forces and moments has resulted in considerabledifficulty in guiding the mining machines in a desired direction ofadvancement, and in reliably maintaining a given direction ofadvancement.

Where it is desired to provide compensation for such reaction effects ina rotary cutter winning machine, it is necessary to provide at least twocounter-rotating cutter heads so that the reaction forces and momentsimposed upon one can be used to counterbalance and there by compensatefor the reaction forces and moments imposed upon the other(s).

Such compensation has been attempted in certain prior art winningmachines, but without success because of the varying resistance of themineral encountered in typical mining operations. In general, thereaction forces and moments experienced by a given rotary cutter headare dependent upon the physical resistance properties of the mineralbeing won, the peripheral speed of the cutters, and the cutting feedrate.

It should be noted that in certain prior are winning machines, usingrotary cutters operating at a relatively high speed, the reaction forcesand moments are substantially lower and can be controlled within limitsby conventional means. However, since such conventional reaction controlmeans are essentially restricted to highspeed rotary winning machines,they are of little use in the more advantageous low-speed winningmachines wherein considerably greater reaction loads are encountered.Furthermore, in many applications, the use of highspeed winning machineswould be undesirable because of the size of the mineral fragmentsproduced and the hazards of flying fragments. This is especially true incoal mining.

The winning machine acording to the instant invention is adaptable toboth low-speed and high-speed operation as well, since it accomplishesits function of winning reaction compensation by controlling therelative peripheral speed of its counter-rotating cutter heads, and notby mere counter-rotation of the cutter heads alone, as in prior artwinning machines.

As will be described in greater detail hereinafter, by controlling theperipheral speeds of the individual rotary cutter heads in relation toeach other, the net force and moment exerted on the entire machine canbe adjusted so as to cause it to advance in a selected direction,precisely guided under the influence of said net force and moment.

Control of the peripheral speeds of the individual cutter heads in thewinning machines, according to one embodiment of the invention, isachieved by driving them through a gear drive mechanism having oneoutput drive shaft connected to each cutter head, and gear shiftingmeans for varying the transmission ratio between each out-put shaft anda single input drive shaft which is connected to a rotary prime mover.

According to another embodiment of the invention, the peripheral speedsof the rotary cutter heads, and hence the net force and moment acting onthe Winning machine, are controlled by individual variable speed drivesconnected to each cutter head via gearing. This particular embodimentlends itself readily to conventional automatic control devices forestablishing the peripheral cutter speeds required for a given directionof advancement.

According to other and further embodiments of the winning machine of theinstant invention, the control and utilization of the aforesaid winningreaction effects can also be achieved by varying the relative spatialand angular disposition of the cutter head axes of rotation.

It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a rotary cuttingwinning machine wherein the net effects of the winning reaction forcescan be controlled.

Another and further object of the invention is to provide a winningmachine as aforesaid, wherein the controlled reaction forces can beutilized for the precise and reliable guidance of the machine in aselected direction of advancement.

Still another and further object of the invention is to provide awinning machine as aforesaid, which is adaptable for both low-speed andhigh-speed operation.

Other and further objects and advantages of the winning machine,according to the invention, will appear in, or become evident from thefollowing detailed descrip: tion and accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal view, partly in section, of a winning machine,according to another embodiment of the invention, shown apart from itsassociated machine frame;

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal view, partly in section, of a winning machine,according to another embodiment of the invention, also shown apart fromits associated machine frame.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a winning machine W is provided with a pair ofconcentrically disposed cutter heads 1 and 3 which are fastened to theshafts 2 and 4 respectively, and are rotatably supported by a machineframe (not shown) via the outer bearings 5 and inner bearings 6. Theshaft 2 is disposed within the hollow shaft 4 and is guided therein bythe bearings 6. The hollow shaft 4 is guided in the bearings 5 which aresupported by the machine frame (not shown), so that the shafts 2 and 4have a substantially common axis of rotation, fixed in relation to themachine frame and the gear drive mechanism 20. A gear 21 affixed to theshaft 2, and an integrally formed gear 22 disposed externally on theshaft 4 are provided for rotatable driving the cutter heads 1 and 3respectively.

The gear drive mechanism 20 shafts 23, 24 and 25, any one an inputshaft. For simplicity, sidered as the input shaft. The though rotatable,are supported fixedly in relation to each other and to the machine frame(not shown).

Accordingly, the input shaft 24 is operatively connected to be rotatedby a prime mover (not shown) and is provided with three of which can beused as the shaft 24 shall be conshafts 23, 24 and 25, al-

transmits its rotary motion to the shafts 23 and 25 via the gears 7 and9 respectively, which mesh with the gear 8 affixed to said shaft 24.

As shown in FIG. 1, the gear drive mechanism is shown in one particulargearing configuration (i.e., gears 7, 8 and 9 in mesh). In addition tothe set of transmission ratios provided between shafts 23 and 25 andinput shaft 24, by the gears 7, 8, and 9, another set of transmissionratios is provided by the gears 10, 11 and 12, which are also aflixed tothe shafts 23, 24 and 15 respectively. Either of these two sets oftransmission ratios can be selected as desired or required to establisha particular winning reaction condition by means of the gear shifter 14,which is operated by conventional means (not shown). If desiredadditional gears (not shown) can be provided on the shafts 23, 24 and 25to increase the number of transmission ratio sets which are available.

Since it is necessary for the cutter heads 1 and 3 to rotate in oppositedirections in order for their reactions to be counterbalanced to anyextent, an idler gear 26 is interposed in the power transmission pathfrom shaft 23 to shaft 2, as between the gear 15 afiixed to shaft 23 andgear 21, with the shaft 4 being driven directly by shaft 25 via gear 27affixed thereto and gear 22.

If desired, the idler gear 26 can be interposed between gears 22 and 27,(i.e., in the power transmission path from shaft 25 to shaft 4), insteadof between gears 15 and 21 as shown.

In the operation of the winning machine W rotary power from the primemover (not shown) is applied to the input shaft 24 and is divided intotwo paths, one to the cutter head 1 via the train of gears 8, 7, 15', 26and 21, and the other to the counter-rotating cutter head 3 via thetrain of gears 8, 9, 27, and 22. Since the mechanical power input toshaft 24 must necessarily equal the sum of the mechanical powerdelivered to each cutter head 1 and 3 (less any intervening losses, byfriction etc.) and the power delivered to each cutter head 1 and 3 isdirectly related to its associated torque and peripheral speed, there isa fixed relation between the torques and angular velocities of thecutter heads 1 and 3 and the shaft 24.

In the case of an ideal lossless power transmission through themechanism 20, this relation can be expressed by the formula:

where T T and T are the torques transmitted in the cutter heads 1 and 3and in the shaft 24 respectively, and W1, W3 and W24 are the respectiveangular velocities of said cutter heads 1, 3 and shaft 24.

Since in the apparatus W of FIG. 1 the angular velocities W1, W3 and W24are related by the transmission ratios of the gearing between shafts, 2,4 and 24, with one of these transmission ratios being negative due tothe counterrotation feature, it is apparent that torque applied to eachcutter head 1 and 3 can be controlled by applying an appropriate torquetto the shaft 24 and selecting an appropriate set of gears such as thegear sets 7, 8, 9, or 10, 11, 12 or similar set (not shown). Similarly,by driving the shaft 24 at an appropriate speed, a given combination ofcutter head 1 and 3 peripheral speeds can be obtained.

In the operation of the winning machine W reaction forces and momentswill be imposed on the cutter heads 1 and 3 at those cutters 28 whichengage the mineral deposit. Generally, the direction of the reactionforces will vary with the portions of the cutter heads 1 and 3 havingcutters 28 in mineral-winning engagement. By operating said cutter heads1 and 3 at appropriate peripheral speeds and torques as aforesaid, thesereaction forces and their moments can be utilized to guide the winningmachine W in a desired direction. Such guidance can be obtained by anoperator (not shown) observing the progress of the mineral-winningmachine and manipulating the gear shifter 14 and prime mover (not shown)output so as to cause the cutter heads 1 and 3 to progress in a desireddirection. Aso, if desired, such guidance can be obtained automaticallythrough the use of a conventional control system (not shown) in lieu ofan operator.

In the embodiment of the invention shown by FIG. 2, the gear drivemechanism 20 is substantially replaced by independent drives 13 whichcan each include a prime mover such as a motor, or be operativelyconnected to be driven by individual prime movers.

The drives 13 are variable speed drives such as, for example, a DC.motor, or a combined motor and variable speed transmission, so that thecutter heads 1 and 3 can be operated at such speeds as are required forthe purposes of the invention.

As is apparent, the winning machine W of FIG. 2 is generally preferableto the winning machine W of FIG. 1, in that it is not necessary toprovide a multitude of shiftable gear sets to cover a given range ofcutter head 1 and 3 speeds. Also, as distinguished from the gear drivemechanism 20, the variable speed drives 13 are each capable of coveringa continuous speed range, such as, for example, where the drives 13include DC. motors.

As will be obvious to those skilled in the art upon reading theforegoing description, the winning machine of the instant invention isnot necessarily limited to the use of two concentric counter-rotatingcutter heads, as illustrated by way of example in FIGS. 1 and 2, but maybe provided with additional cutter heads which can either be mountedconcentrically, or in spaced relation to each other, or even with theirrotation axes angularly inclined with respect to each other.

What is claimed is:

1. A winning machine comprising a machine frame, a pair ofconcentrically rotatable cutter heads supported by said machine frame, avariable transmission ratio gear drive having an input shaft connectableto a prime mover for rotation thereby, a pair of output shafts eachconnected to a corresponding cutter head to transmit rotary powerthereto from said input shaft to counterrotate said cutter heads, andgear ratio change means operable to vary the rotation speeds of saidcutter heads to maintain a selected rotary speed ratio between saidcutter heads to correspondingly regulate the net reaction force andmoment transmitted to the machine frame through said cutter heads.

2. The winning machine according to claim 1 wherein said gear ratiochange means includes a plurality of selectively intermeshable gearsets, each gear set including three gears, one mounted on said inputshaft and one mounted on each output shaft, each gear set correspondingto a characteristic cutter head speed ratio.

3. The winning machine according to claim 1 wherein said cutter heads,input shaft and both output shafts are disposed for rotation aboutmutually parallel axes.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 433,610 8/1890 Bain -91 540,3066/1895 Fry 175-106 X 2,699,328 1/1955 Alspaugh et al 29960 X 2,798,7077/1957 Kandle 29960 X 2,973,949 3/1961 Densmore 29960 X 3,195,661 7/1965Jackson et al. 17595 ERNEST R. PURSER, Primary Examiner.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent NO.3,322,466 May 30, 1967 Werner Mennekes It is hereby certified that errorappears in the above numbered patent requiring correction and that thesaid Letters Patent should read as corrected below.

Column 1, line 17, for "I the operation" read In the operation line 48,for "are" read art column 2, line 63, for "rotatable" read rotatablycolumn 3, line 10, for "15" read 25 line 59, for "torquet" read torqueSigned and sealed this 9th day of January 1968.

(SEAL) Attest:

Edward M. Fletcher, Jr. EDWARD J. BRENNER Attesting Officer Commissionerof Patents

1. A WINNING MACHINE COMPRISING A MACHINE FRAME, A PAIR OF CONCENTRICALLY ROTATABLE CUTTER HEADS SUPPORTED BY SAID MACHINE FRAME, A VARIABLE TRNSMISSION RATIO GEAR DRIVE HAVING AN INPUT SHAFT CONNECTABLE TO A PRIME MOVER FOR ROTATION THEREBY, A PAIR OF OUTPUT SHAFTS EACH CONNECTED TO A CORRESPONDING CUTTER HEAD TO TRANSMIT ROTARY POWER THERETO FROM SAID INPUT SHAFT TO COUNTERROTATE SAID CUTTER HEADS, AND GEAR RATIO CHANGE MEANS OPERABLE TO VARY THE ROTATION SPEEDS OF SAID CUTTER HEADS TO MAINTAIN A SELECTED ROTARY SPEED RATIO BETWEEN SAID CUTTER HEADS TO CORRESPONDINGLY RGULATE THE NET REACTION FORCE AND MOMENT TRANSMITTED TO THE MACHINE FRAME THROUGH SAID CUTTER HEADS. 